


Phoenix Down

by Sileas333



Series: Wreck [1]
Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: First Person, Gen, Rescue, crossover in disguise, special guest star at the end
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-06 19:47:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17945984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sileas333/pseuds/Sileas333
Summary: I needed to do something about a situation....





	Phoenix Down

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea why I'm doing this... I think I have a virus.
> 
> This is written in a very informal style, from not just first person but my specific view. For the first conversation in here, think of it as I'm somewhere outside the multiverse, idly watching things, and someone I've been working with for aaaages is there with me. He gets named much later on, but just so we don't get too confused, his name is Ja Sen. No, not Jason. Jah with a hard J, not a German yah, and Sen pretty much as spelled. Accent on second syllable. Anyway, he's who I'm talking with. I've imagined him as some kind of big felinoid kind of race. The part where Picard comes into it, think of it as me just popping in Q style on him.
> 
> I've deliberately avoided naming the second fandom in this chunk because: surprise! If I name it at the start, it's.....eh. Old news before you even start reading. This work of course has a follow-up---no way would I leave this puppy hanging. I just didn't want to give it away too early. The rest of this will be a separate work hitched to this with all the proper fandom tags in it.
> 
> PS I mention an evacuation in this. That's a shameless plug for another crossover fic I've been working off and on with for a couple of years. Just smile and nod and move along---nothing to see here.

Seriously.

Hi. My name’s Mary Sue. No, really. Well...wait, yeah. Because Mary Sue is a self-insert, right? Well...wait....

I’ll come in again.

Some things you just gotta take care of in person, and this was one of ‘em. So it’s not so much me inserting myself in the story–I actually went to do this myself. I saw the loose end on the list and ignored it, but eventually one night I was bored and did some investigating. Two weeks later.... I had to act. I mean... Seriously.

　

"That’s a pretty old one."

"Yeah...tell me about it," I murmured to my partner in crime. "Decades."

"But short in the grand scheme of things."

"True, but...long enough for this one. Too long."

"What are you thinking of?"

I clasped my hands and sighed. "A rescue."

"To here?"

Another sigh, and I stared off for a bit. "Well...let me think."

　

So I thought. Didn’t take long. I came up with a few ideas, but one kinda pushed to the fore. I decided to visit an old friend. First, check status, and saa-weeeet, perfect. They’re cruisin’ home...oh yeah. Perfect. Deep check and some serious upgrades, and...oh yeah. Perfect. For two weeks. That should be plenty of time. So... I don’t wanna scare him, but...I should visit.

　

Time it perfectly......–now. Sittin’ on that lil gray couch.

Don’t ask me why, but Jean-Luc Picard’s picture-perfect double takes always make me laugh.

"I’m sorry, I don’t mean to spook you," I said, smiling, as he managed to get his ‘tea, earl gray, hot’ onto his desk before he spilled it. "Watch the tea."

He took a steadying breath and sat down. "Well. It’s been a little while."

"Like...two months? Something like that...?"

"Approximately. Thank you for the warning on that evacuation, by the way," he said with a smile. "I hope we’re not..."

"Another giant one? No," I said as he sipped his tea.

"Can I get you anything?"

"Naah. Thanks though. I do have a small situation, though, that I need help with," I said frankly. "I promise, it’s small. Well...smallish, and easily fixed."

"We can’t divert course at the moment–"

"Don’t need to," I slipped in cheerfully. "You’re perfect right where you are–I mean, where you’re headed. Absolutely perfect. I checked, I know you’re headed to Earth for two weeks or so for giant shore leave, upgrades, stuff like that."

"And this help is in the form of..." he prompted.

Another sigh, and I pulled up my knees and wrapped my arms around them. "Okay, here’s the deal. I have... a friend who needs help. He’s....well, he’s suicidal."

A quick frown of concern. "I’m sorry to hear that. Are there no resources where he is?"

"Nope. He’s been frikken’ abandoned," I said with an eye roll. "Pretty much forgotten, for at least a decade, or even more. I mean, he’s got basic life support and that’s pretty much it. A roof over his head, some basic necessities, but that’s it."

"I would refer you to Counselor Troi–"

"Well, she actually wouldn’t be–she’s not who I had in mind, at least at first," I explained. "He’s going to need some pretty specialized TLC and I have a couple of different people in mind. What I want to do..." I pointedly looked at the floor a moment, trying to gather this up in a quick, coherent explanation. "He wants to die," I said bluntly, looking back at Picard. "He wants to just kick off. He used to be pretty dang active, part of a small team of people–and before I go further, I should tell you we’re talking a time and dimension thing. I’d be pulling him from Earth from, like... I dunno, 400-odd years ago. Early 21st century, and another dimension."

His eyes widened a little. "Which we can’t–"

I nodded. "Right. I’ll be doing that part. But thing is....he was part of a group of people, a small team that kinda...rooted out baddies. Kinda like what they used to call a private eye."

"Dixon Hill," he said suddenly, a spark of recognition in his eyes. "But you said 21st century Earth," he said, pulling back into a wary look. "We cannot pull someone to this century without violating the Prime Directive–"

"You won’t be. I will," I said emphatically, pointing at myself. "Mine. And this is just one person. One single person. That’s been done before–plenty of precedence. And if anyone could adapt, this guy could. He’s bright. And in any case, he’s basically just rotting in a corner right now. Here’s my idea–I basically want to tell him okay, if you want to die, we’ll do it. But someone like you deserves some honors. I wanna take you to a place where that can be done. My hope is that when he gets here, he’ll look around and...kinda...perk up," I finished simply.

"And live."

"Right."

"Then what? Where does he go?"

I recognized the thinly veiled challenge, him testing me, and I thought a moment. "You know...actually, frankly, wherever he dang well wants. Within reason," I added quickly when I saw the ‘wait a minute’ look on Picard’s face. "Frankly, he could–well, there’d be a bit of work required, but frankly, he could end up–like, at the Academy, even. Starfleet."

Picard sat back for a moment, giving me an appraising look. He reached for his tea. "While there are examples of time travelers adjusting, there are examples of failure."

"Fail as in...?"

"The shock of transition, the cutting of connections, losing a sense of place–it can be just as devastating as this betrayal and abandonment."

"Well, nothing to lose, because he wants to die, anyway."

"I also find it hard to believe that someone who contributed to society in the way you imply could be so forgotten as to not even rate basic societal care," he said dryly, raising an eyebrow. "What aren’t you telling me?"

　

I told him what I wasn’t telling him. Er.... I mean, well, I told him.

　

The teacup was empty and had long since cooled by the time I got done. I kept my mouth shut and just waited for him to think. After a full minute, he reached out to idly run his finger along the edge of the saucer on his desk, then pulled his chair in closer with his elbows on the desk and rubbed his face.

"There would be some translation," he said slowly, coming out from behind his hands and staring absently at his desktop.

"Probably big-time." I waited while he thought.

"I grant you, this is unique."

"Yeah," I said with quiet intensity. "But you see what I mean, right? I mean...he was freakin’ ahead of his time, massively. I mean, they knew what they had but...they didn’t _really_ know what they had. Hell, I don’t even think _he_ knows. But he’s as bright as anyone here, he’s as brave, as capable....He should’ve gotten decorated by Congress. Instead he’s sitting in a corner, rotting, pretty much forgotten, waiting to _die_."

Picard did one of his ‘well, let’s consider this’ sighs. "I can’t make any promises," he started.

"Understood."

"But we can....discuss it. I take it that there’s no specific time frame other than our arrival at McKinley?"

"Correct. If we decide to do this, it could be any ol’ time in that window when you’re here. I mean–there."

He nodded. "How long will you be on board?"

"As long as you need me. I’ll give you a brain dump, everything I know. I can explain it to whoever you want in on this."

"I’d like you to come to a staff meeting on it, and I’m going to ask Counselor Troi to come as well. Now, understand," he said, raising a finger, "I’m not promising. We’ll explore the options and I would ask you to accept whatever decision we make on this."

"Yup." I nodded firmly. "If this doesn’t work, I have a couple of other options."

"Very good. I’ll have Commander Riker set up a meeting and we’ll contact you."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." I did a little two-fisted air pound. "Awesome."

　

So.....meeting happened. Cap’n, Will, Geordi, Data, and Troi. We came, we saw, we decided. Whoooo! Sweet. And it is about damn TIME. And there was prep work. The Big E would have been easily seen by our Earth scopes so yeah, shuttle. Easier to hide. We’d launch the shuttle, then I’d loop us in to the right time and dimension while E stays in its place, and we go to the old farts’ home, collect our prey, and get out. Sweet. So off we went–it was me, Data, and Geordi, and two other crew to help....erm...sweet talk the poor guy.

　

"Your mad hacking skills..."

Data gave me the blank-eyed stare. "I am not mad. I am quite—"

"I know," I said emphatically. "I mean...mad as in crazy genius."

"Well, it’s not like we’re up against much," Geordi murmured as he worked intently on some wires. "Fairly straight-forward system. I mean, no offense—"

"It’s early 21st century tech versus 24th century. Guess who’s gonna win," I said. "Don’t answer that, it’s obvious."

"Might as well go in quietly," he said, glancing around at the scrabbly little remains of grass in the area and the dirt road, and then up to the sole light in the area, on a pole about 50 meters away. "We won’t know what we’re up against until...we get in there..."

"Well he definitely won’t scream bloody murder," I said, watching Data work on a tricorder he’d hooked in to the security system. "In fact, you won’t get a single peep from him." Geordi spliced in a few more wires, then stepped back.

"Alright, let’s hack it open." He stepped over and watched Data tap into the security system and reroute power through the alternate connections.

"And some good ol’ fashioned lock-picking skills for dessert," I said as one of the other tech crew stepped in with the time-honored pick. She worked the lock for maybe a minute–it took longer than I thought. These aren’t bathroom doors, like they are on TV.

"There," Geordi said softly as the heavy metal door opened. "Alright, let’s keep in a line–don’t fan out. You know where he is?" he asked me as we slipped inside.

"Yup," I said quietly, taking a flashlight one of them handed to me. "Well...at least I did during the day. Don’t worry, I can find him again," I assured them. "I came in through a different...uh, method, but.....I know what area he’s in, and it’s by a wall...just gotta find my way through to that wall." Distracted, I turned around in a full circle, trying to orient myself in the giant artificial cave.

"How much of this are we going to have to move?" Geordi asked, keeping his voice low as he followed me around wooden skids and giant metal shelves full of corporate clutter.

"Actually, not much," I said over my shoulder. "That’s one of the first things I checked, thinking about this. There’s...one stack we’ll have to...nudge over..." I stopped a moment, carefully checking my orientation. "Okay....there." I had to zig-zag through a lot of skids full of equipment, another bunch of giant shelving, and finally got to an area I recognized. "Alright, here we go."

I got to the wide-open track through part of the warehouse, following some wide white tape on the smooth concrete floor. I saw my footprints in the dust from a few trips I’d made in here the last few days, locking in on them and getting some confidence. I knew which wall we were headed for, but it’s nice to get a confirmation. For a second I worried about all the prints we’d be adding, but then thought...it’s not like anyone can come after us. Hell, it’d probably be a few months before anybody noticed anything missing.

Around that last corner, and I shined the flashlight ahead about ten meters, seeing an irregular dark gray shape against the wall. I suddenly hiccuped in some air. Grrr....No. No more crying. We’re going to fix this. This is the end of crying and the start of something good.

Oh, crap....

"Crap, I’m sorry," I managed, covering my mouth with my free hand.

"What, is something wrong?" Geordi asked, coming around to face me with a hand on my arm, looking concerned. "This is it, isn’t it?"

I was nodding. "Yeah, don’t pay any attention to this idiot," I managed as the others came around me. "I’m just being a dork. This is him. Grrr...." Irritated with myself, I set the flashlight down, pulled off my glasses, and ran an arm over my eyes. "Ignore me, I’m just being dumb." One of the other engineers there stepped back and took hold of the edge of a heavy, dark-gray tarp and pulled it up a little, looking underneath. "They didn’t even fucking _dust_ him," I growled, trying to use some anger to get rid of the stupid crying. "Ladies and gentlemen, the remains of a great unsung American hero. The Knight Industries Two Thousand. The one, the only, K.I.T.T."


End file.
